3 Ways to Integrate Your PR & Marketing

People of a certain age may remember the classic Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials — “You got your peanut butter on my chocolate!” “Well, you got your chocolate in my peanut butter!” — which resulted in one of the best candies ever. (You can see a couple of Reese’s commercials from 1972 and 1980s at the bottom of this post.)

The digital age is causing the same reactions as PR and marketing professionals bump into each other online and finding their two methods are getting hopelessly mixed — “You got your PR on my marketing!” “Well, you got your marketing in my PR!”

But the result of this accidental blend is taking both disciplines even further in their reach and effectiveness. As we spend more time online and on our mobile phones — finding news, entertainment, product information all online, as well as researching and purchasing products — the need for the two areas to become more integrated is becoming more apparent.

Here are three ways you can seamlessly integrate PR and marketing to achieve outstanding results.

1. Generate Traffic With Press Releases & Pitches

Last year, press releases were used for SEO purposes as a way to build backlinks to websites. Google has cracked down on that tactic, no longer counting any backlinks from known press release sites. But that doesn’t mean the press release is no longer useful.

Since press releases are the way to inform media outlets about your company news, they’re still ideal for sharing interesting information. The media outlets that publish your story will most likely include a link to your company. If readers are interested in the story, they may click the link to your company. That’s what you really want anyway. The secret is writing interesting news releases and placing them with media outlets interested in telling your story.

2. Use Bloggers for Media Relations & Content Marketing

Working with third-party bloggers can be a function of either marketing or PR. You pitch a blogger, ask them to write about your product, send a sample or loaner unit, and include the review on your website and other marketing materials. Call it content marketing, call it media relations, the results are the same: your product and company get promoted online. You get SEO traffic (marketing), you get earned media credit (PR), and you get a brand new audience.

Working with independent bloggers can help you build an entire word-of-mouth network that reaches hundreds of thousands of people for a fraction of the cost of advertising. Keep in mind that many bloggers are extremely busy and have editorial calendars planned months in advance. Time your releases and announcements accordingly.

3. Blog on Supporters’ & Influencers’ Sites

In the past, writing your CEO’s guest columns for the newspaper was often a PR function. Now companies are adopting that idea and submitting guest articles to industry bloggers. The idea is to introduce the bloggers’ audience to your company, and return the favor by accepting guest posts from the same bloggers. Again, this is both a earned media and a content marketing function, so it’s one of those hybrid functions.

You can merge your PR and marketing, monitor its effectiveness, and see which stories and releases are contributing to your overall web traffic.